WELCOME TO MY HEALTH & FITNESS BLOG!

*The site you are on right now (www.halfofgabby.blogspot.com) is no longer posting new articles and information. Half of Gabby has moved to www.halfofgabby.com and will continue to post new material regularly! In addition, all older articles have been updated on the new site.

Friday, January 23, 2015

HOMEMADE GAK RECIPE: Such a Fun Experiment and Play Craft!

* The page
that you are on right now (www.halfofgabby.blogspot.com) is no longer posting
new articles and information. Half of Gabby has moved to www.halfofgabby.com
and will continue to post new material regularly! In addition, all older
articles have been updated on the new site!

~~~

Oh man, do I have a fun activity for you! The kids and grandkids will flip over this! And let me just say, so will you! I cannot believe how much fun this homemade Gak was to make. It was just as fun to make as it was to play with... maybe even more! Not only did this enthrall my girls (7 and 10 years old), but it blew daddy, grandma, and me away too! Seriously, you need to try this.

8oz Hot Water (you will be filling up empty glue bottles with hot water from your sink)

Additional 1/2 cup Hot Water (again, just from your sink)

1 tsp Borax (inexpensive and found by the laundry detergents)

Food Coloring

*Please note:This is NOT safe to eat since it contains Borax, so watch children under three closely when playing with this. But with adult supervision, they too can play and have fun!

*An Important Note On The Glue:We also tried using Washable RoseArt Glue and Elmer's Stronger Formula Glue. They did not work. The mixtures were way too runny and the food coloring would come off on your hands. It was more like runny slime than Gak.

I'm not saying other glues won't work, but out of the three glues we tried, only the Washable Elmer's School Glue worked for

us.

SUPER EASY INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Empty 8oz of glue into a medium-sized bowl.

2. Then fill the empty glue bottle(s) with hot water from the sink. *An adult should do this step.

3. Shake the bottle(s) really good. SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE! And then empty it into your bowl with the glue and mix.

4. Add food coloring until you reach your desired color. The kids have fun with this! Have them keep adding drops and mixing until they love the color!

You can make all different kinds of colors and have fun mixing the food coloring too! We followed the directions on the back of our food coloring box to make purple, pink, orange, and teal.

BEFORE you mix the Borax water in, you can even add glitter to your Gak!

*Note: These pics were taken after Gak was done. You will be putting your glitter in your watery glue mixture BEFORE the Borax. These pics are what your glittery Gak will look like AFTER you add the Borax.

5. In a separate bowl, mix 1/2 cup hot water with 1 tsp Borax until dissolved (won't take long). *An adult should do this step. The kids can mix the Gak once the adult pours the Borax water into the bowl. But an adult should mix the Borax formula and pour it into the Gak bowl.

6. Slowly add the Borax water to your glue mixture, in two or three pours.

Now watch the magic start to happen!!!!

7. Once the kids mixed it up really good, I would get my hands in the bowl and knead the Gak until all the liquid was soaked up.

OMG, IT IS SO COOL!!!!!

It's just amazing to watch this work!

*TIP: You can make plain white by adding no food coloring. It comes out a really pretty, bright white too!

For extra fun, we took some of our other Gak colors and added it to a white batch.

Then we let it sit until the color pieces melted into the white (then we flipped it over and did it to the other side).

Once it was all melded together (it doesn't take long!), we got this really cool rainbow Gak!

Just a warning though, after you play with it for a while, all the colors just kinda blend into one solid color. But we had fun with the rainbow Gak while it lasted! Ours turned a pretty light mint green.

You can play and make all kinds of shapes with your Gak. You can even use cookie cutters to get perfect fun shapes!

GAK, GAK, EVERYWHERE GAK!

We went insane. We made tons! We couldn't get enough. We were (and still are) obsessed!

Daddy couldn't help himself. When the girls and I started the experiment, he was in the living room. It wasn't long before he heard all the fun and giggling and came to check things out.

...And it wasn't a minute later before he wanted in on the action! Haha!

Fun stuff, I tell you! Just good old fashioned family fun!

We were all enthralled. The neatest thing ever. Science, baby! Gotta love it. The Borax bonds all of the molecules of the separate ingredients into one solid (and stretchy) mass. We were all diggin' this experiment big time. The best part is that after the experiment is over, you have super cool Gak to play with. My 7 year old has not stopped playing with it. She has made her mommy, daddy, and sissy countless restaurant items. LOL! She even has a menu that we order from!

How cute is that?!

I really hope you try this experiment with the Littles in your life. They will surely love it... and they'll think you are the coolest person ever! I'm still getting props :)

*STORAGE TIP:We found that the easiest and most practical way to store our Gak is in sealed containers. It keeps it perfectly preserved and ready for play at any time.

I found 5-Packs of them for super cheap at Ollie's. I'm sure the dollar stores would have them as well. The 25 fl oz containers that we got are the perfect size for a single batch of the Homemade Gak!

You will receive daily goodies including: HEALTH & FITNESS TIPS, WORKOUTS, HEALTHY RECIPES, MOTIVATING ENCOURAGEMENT, as well as FAMILY FITNESS, MOMMY IDEAS, CRAFT IDEAS, and even FUNNY STORIES & ARTICLES for some comedic relief.You get a little bit of everything in just one click :)

*The information on
this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional
medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content in this article is for
general information purposes only. I am not a doctor, nor am I a dietitian.
Talk to your physician before making any changes in your diet or exercise
regimen. The information found in this article is from various sources which
include, but are not limited to, the sites listed above. I encourage you to do
your own research and talk with your physician before making any changes in
diet or exercise. What has worked for me may not work for you. This information
in this article or on this website should never replace or serve as medical
advice.

NEVER DISREGARD
PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY SEEKING MEDICAL TREATMENT BECAUSE OF
SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON OR HAVE ACCESSED THROUGH THIS WEB SITE.

My Fitness Photo Shoot Pics

Photography by Ilene Marshall Photography

Followers

CRAZY IS ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

My whole lifeI have been described as crazy and funny by other people. And I don't mean crazy as in truly certifiably crazy, I mean more as in I say what comes to my mind . I think a big part of the reason people think I'm funny is because I say what everyone else is thinking. People who don't know me are sometimes taken aback by my candidness and those who know me try to be prepared, but are still often left shaking their heads. My Hubs is famous for shaking his head at me. He'll try to say he's grossed out or shocked but he secretly loves it. It's part of my charm and why he fell in love with me ;)

I would not describe myself as crazy. But we all catch the crazies every once in a while, fo sho. But I do say what's on my mind and I do have a fondness for dirty words.

I do love to laugh though, so it's a good thing I married a funny man. I grew up with a big italian family with wicked funny humor. My father's side was more the dirty, foul mouthed humor and my mother's side was more the witty, clever humor. Either way, it was all freakin' hilarious, so I had to catch the funnies...it's in my blood. I love spending time with people who enjoy getting their own smile on. A night of hanging with family and friends and laughing until my stomach hurts is my perfect kind of evening.

It's not all funny business though, I try hard to be a good person and work hard on bettering myself all the time. I hope to have the privilege of living a long life and I hope to die being the very best version of myself. One of my biggest goals in this life is to inspire and empower other women to start their own journeys. Weight loss journeys really aren't about losing weight at all. They're about gaining life. It's amazing how health and fitness serves as a portal into a world where you learn to love and respect yourself. A world where you see your beauty, the true beauty that lives inside of you and makes you who you really are.

I've been through my share of shit(as has everybody) and have had to endure days that will not soon be forgotten. My past is what attributed to me becoming a therapist. I believe that being happy isn't having a life void of problems, but is being a person who knows how to deal with the problems. Trials and tribulations are a part of life, it's a fact...shit happens....so you gotta learn how to forge through it. And life at any moment can turn your world upside down. So I consider any day that my family is happy and healthy, well, that's a great day...and something to be so very, very grateful for.

My wish is to create a badass army of empowered women.This is the main reason I created my blog, Half of Gabby. I realized if I could learn to conquer my obesity and all the demons that caused it, I could maybe, just maybe, inspire other women to do the same. It saddens me to watch women keep their heads down, constantly pull at their clothes out of self-consciousness, and put themselves last in all areas of their life. I used to do that, all of it. When I see these women, I feel their heavy sadness because I too once felt it. I know how hard it is to lift that weight off of your shoulders. But I also know it's possible because I did it. And if I can do it, anybody can do it. So that's why I'm here... to build an army. An army of badass women who know their worth and see how beautiful they are, BEFORE and after they hit goal weight.

It's time to stare your fear down, go after your dreams, and start thinking and acting like the badass that you are.

FOLLOW HALF OF GABBY ON FACEBOOK FOR DAILY WEIGHT LOSS AND HEALTH TIPS, RECIPES, WORKOUTS, MOTIVATION, FAMILY ACTIVITY AND FITNESS IDEAS, AND MUCH MORE! YOU'LL EVEN GET SOME COMEDIC RELIEF WITH SOME OF THE TRUE LIFE, FUNNY STORIES I SHARE. BESIDES, LAUGHTER BURNS CALORIES ;)